DM Eberron Dreiko's page

I really appreciate you advice and help people, thank you all for the help you provide.

I read through everything and I realised that I could not give the facts as they are, so I drove the path away.

I will make a sum up of the clues - and add some new ones - in one post:

- The PCs do not belong to this timeline.

We started the story in custom world with another DM. After the 1st session, I picked it up to continue the scenario. I found a way to play in Eberron. The story started with the PCs exploring an old ruined village - located in the version of Eberron that Sharn was not the city of Tower (the previous custom world) were a lonely artificer was having experiments for time travel, in order to go back and save his wife. After some flash backs - the PCs were seeing the village as it was 20 years before and vice versa - the "travel machine" was destroyed, locking them in an alternate timeline, where the machine never existed. That's the Eberron as it is now.

- The first person the PCs met is their current patron.

The PCs made their way to Sharn as it was the nearest city they could see - that was their birthcity in their real timeline - and they got in trouble. That's when they started to do a digging and, trying to find a way to go back to their timeline, met their patron. He is a kind young man, and is trustworthy and I want him to like the PCs.

- The player's father is NOT he real father

The Object X is now safe in the hands of a player's alternate father from this timeline, who happened to have lost his son (the player) and his wife during the birth. So, after the explanations, the father met the son he never had, so it's kinda cheesy to use the father as traitor. At the moment at least.

- The Object X is important and dangerous, and 3 organizations are after it

Only the Master of the kind patron is aware of what X can do. The other organizations, only have a tiny idea, but still they want it for them. The PCs found X by luck, when they were after another relic for their patron. They knew of a long lost item (the X), as they knew that their patron was after it.

They kept it secret to make more money because they met the other organizations during the "quest" for the relic (not the X) and they thought that the reward for something that so many people are interested is trivial.

- The Patron was not aware of the difficulty the PCs had to find the relic

The money that he gave to the PCs was the "budget" that his Master provided as reward for the relic. He also paid some extra (his own money) in order to keep the PCs happy, but still the PCs do not trust him now.

- X is really important for the plot

The Object X must somehow be back to world, so that the plot reveals. Think it like in Lord of the Ring, if Boromir had taken the Ring from the hobbits and didn't die there. The Ring should be again somehow back to the world, in order to continue the plot.

- X cannot be tracked by Divination

At least without a serious reason. Whoever tried to use Divination to track the location of the X all these years, he failed because the crypt was protected. Now It maybe can be tracked, but there must be a reason. The only one who is aware that the PCs know information of the location of the X (that's what they told him, they did not say that they have it) is their patron. Probably his Master will know it in a couple of days since the PCs asked their patron to let his Master know that they want a huge amount of gold for the information.

Also some of the PCs even think to keep it 100% secret, until they know the purpose of the other organizations (what they will do with X) so that the PCs chose who to give it to.
The idea of giving it to none was even an option.

Knowing now, I hope you see why I am in a dead end, and why I feel that the players are in control of my story. They also know that the information they have is invaluable to 3 factions, which make them feel immune to death, since the secret will be lost.

Now you know everying I do.

I thank everyone that already helped and in advance anyone that will help!

Cheers to all :)

Vendis I also do not like the idea of railroading event and make players feel cheated.

I'm not as experienced a DM as I would say every other one in here. I have run tons of single-session scenarios, even some 3-4 session ones.

But running a long term campaign proved to be much more difficult than I thought. I'm trying to let PCs decide how the plot evolve, but I need to get the control here, cause I gave - wrongly - the X to PCs in order to witness its "come-back" to the world.

Players are all good/neutral acyually (no evil characters) but yes none is actually lawful.

However they did not break term, since they gave back the relic they were sent for, but they did not mention that they also found X. They just said they have information about it, and that, with a great reward, they will also do the favor and go get it themselves.

The bargain was legitimate, the patron, who indeed likes them, feels their anger but cant do much. He payed them 1/3 more from his own pocket, to make them feel less frustrated and the players again never mentioned they actually HAVE the X.

I'm not sure of WHY you need the item to be stolen, other than , to keep it from the patron.

The patron is a double agent and one of his masters want it badly. The master feel that this belongs to him since he is the only one that really knows how to use it, and all others are expoiling his research.

The master IS the one that has the item stolen by the players' patron - according to the initial scenario.

Now he is the one that must steal it by the player's father somehow.

The Prophecy musy go on, it is not selfishness by my part :)

It really annoys me when I don't do things right.

But, I hope you shall forgive me, it was my first post so I did not know what information should I give.

I am trying not to refer to specific names and locations, to have a more out-of-the-ordinary advice.

That's the story in titles:

- The players' patron is a helpful young man that cares about the players.
- He, however is double agent, concerning his affiliations not related to the players.
- He wants X for one of his affiliations, without the other knowing about it.
- Players felt that they were tricked because they met an enemy expedition looking for the quest relic (not X) and they translated their payment as trivial, considering what they got through.
- One of the players (the silver-tongue of the party) convinces his group to keep the X secret, and "secures" it to his father's house.
- The message was sent via the Rogue of the group, face to face with the patron, asking a huge amount of gold, for the information about X.

X is part of the Draconic Prophecy. It's not the One Ring, it's not a simple +1 dagger. It's powerful and dangerous and the patron's affiliation is the only one who has an idea about what it can do. The other groups are after it, but do not know 100% what X can do.

My first post here, nice to be in yout community guys.

I have a serious problem with my Eberron campaign's plot.

The facts are that my players, when were on their quest, found additional treasure than the one they were send for.
The item - let's call it X - was really important to the players' patron and they knew it.
They were disappointed with the reward for their primary goal - although they had come to an agreement in the first place - and they decided to keep X. One of them, member of a noble wealthy house - NOT dragonmarked house - decided to give it to his father to watch it.
They send their patron a message letting him know that they have information about X but they want a huge reward - knowing that he was searching X his whole life.

Now the problem is that I really needed this item to be stolen from their patron - if he had it. Now that a member of a noble house has it, it can't be traced there. I would love some ideas how i can make it happen.

What CAN'T happen:
- Use Locate Object (none has ever touched the item)
- The player's father become a traitor
- Other members of the house know about it (the player was ensured that they were alone)

Players are lvl 4 and they currently are away for some personal seeking that will last at least one week.

So, what can happen in one and have this item stolen?